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On Oct. 7, 2008, Jim James fell off the stage at a My Morning Jacket concert in Iowa City, Iowa, an event that would change his life forever.

The fall took place just six songs into the concert during one of the band’s most beloved tracks, “Off The Record.” As James moved to the edge of the stage to play for the crowd, he went to step up on a row of subwoofers just as he had done hundreds of times before. The lights went dark for just an instant and James stepped off into darkness. The band canceled the rest of their U.S. and European fall tour as James recovered at home in Louisville, Ky., suffering from extensive internal injuries.

The event turns out to have been a bit of an epiphany for James, who believes it was meant to happen. He recently told Rolling Stone Magazine: “I felt like I was going down a dark path in life. ... You get into these life patterns and you get so sucked in. You almost don’t listen to yourself, even when you know you need to change. Your body will be screaming at you, ‘This is wrong for you!’ and you just don’t listen. It’s this struggle between your heart and your body and when you don’t listen, you lose. You [expletive] fall off the stage.”

During his recovery, James spent a great deal of time with “Gods’ Man,” a 1929 graphic novel told in woodcuts by artist Lynd Ward. The wordless novel depicts an artist’s struggle in a world filled with greed and corruption who is “saved” by a woman he loves after falling off a cliff. Newly in love and recovering physically and emotionally from his own fall, James was so taken by the parallels in the story to his own life that he began to score the book. The result, “Regions of Light and Sound of God,” four years in the making), was released Feb. 5 on ATO Records.

It’s a stunning record that sets the early pace for one of the most interesting and creative albums of 2013. Fans of My Morning Jacket will instantly identify with the soulful threads of music that appeared in the band’s last two albums, “Evil Urges and Circuital,” but the Southern rock sound of earlier MMJ efforts is nowhere in sight. Die-hard Jacket fans know that soul and funk have always been in Jim James’ soul, whether it’s his live covers of Curtis Mayfield, Bobby Womack and Prince or “Cobra” from the 2002 MMJ EP, “Chocolate and Ice.” At heart, Jim James has always been the most soulful white guy this side of the Mississippi.

Seeing Jim James live is a transformative multi-hour event. At only 38 minutes in length, fans have been wondering how the solo album will play out in the recently announced 19-market tour that kicks off April 19 in Louisville. James and his new touring band did a test run on Feb. 1 at The Basement in Nashville in front of about 100 people. They played “Regions Of God and Sound of Man” start to finish, and then went into a full set of My Morning Jacket favorites, with MMJ’s Karl Broemel joining the band.

No word on whether that format will continue for the rest of the tour, which is playing venues that are small by My Morning Jacket standards. The 1,100-capacity Orange Peel show on May 3 in Asheville, N.C., the closest to Savannah, sold out in three days. The band will play a few more early shows in New York and Philly during February, including New York’s Carnegie Hall on Feb. 19.

Kayne Lanahan is the founder and CEO of MusicFile Productions LLC, the parent company of Savannah Stopover. The MusicFile is a Savannah-based music discovery website and blog. Check out more of their expert picks at themusicfile.com.